Easy for fancied players in National Billiards
July 26th, 2011 - 9:59 pm ICT by IANSChennai, July 26 (IANS) Pankaj Advani (PSPB) and Geet Sethi (Gujarat), who have won 16 World titles between them, came through their opening league matches in contrasting style as the senior National Billiards Championship got underway here Tuesday.
Seven times World champion and Asian Games gold medallist Advani from Bangalore, who celebrated his 26th birthday July 24, outclassed M.S. Reddy of the Railways 3-0 in Group A with breaks of 48 unfinished and 57 in the 100-up points format.
Sethi, winner of nine World titles, however, struggled to get past Siddharth Parkeh of the Railways 3-2 after leading 2-0 in a scrappy Group C match.
“Maybe it was the first match blues,” commented the 50-year old Sethi who is in quest of his seventh National title after last winning it in 2007.
“Parkeh is a good player, but like me, he too played below par. Remember, he had beaten me in the 2006 Chennai Nationals in the prequarters, my worst-ever performance in the championship.
“But it is good to get the match out of the way and hopefully, I will play better from now on,” said Sethi.
Also winning their opening ties were Asian and defending champion Alok Kumar who breezed past Utsav Ramani (Gujarat) with a 3-0 margin in Group B and former World and thrice National champion Ashok Shandilya (Railways), a facile 3-0 victory against Amit Sharma (Delhi).
The results (preliminary league):
Group A: Prem Prakash (TN) bt IV Rajiv (AP) 3-2; Vishal Madan (Mah) bt Jaishankar (Jhar) 3-0; Pankaj Advani (PSPB) bt MS Reddy (Rlys) 3-0.
Group B: S Simhachallam (Rlys) bt Nitin Kohli (UP) 3-1; Shankar Rao (AP) bt Anushal Mittal (Har) 3-0; Alok Kumar (PSPB) bt Utsav Ramani (Guj) 3-0.
Group C: Geet Sethi (Guj) bt Siddharth Parekh (Rlys) 3-2; Rajkumar (Kar) bt Sankeeth Saurabh (Bih) 3-0; Ketan Chawla (MP) bt Bhuvaneshwaran (TN) 3-0.
Group D: Dhruv Sitwala (PSBS) bt Abhineet Sharma (MP) 3-0; Subrat Das (Ori) bt Akram Khan (WB) 3-1; Arun Agarwal (Mah) bt Arif Akhtar (Chd) 3-1.
Group E: Sourav Kothari (PSPB) bt Kankan Shamsi (UP) 3-0; Rupesh Shah (PSPB) bt Shivam Arora (Bih) 3-0; Aditya Agarwal (Rlys) bt Abhishek Saini (Har) 3-0.
Group F: Ashok Shandilya (Rlys) bt Amit Sharma (Del) 3-0.
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- Advani leads way into pre-quarters of National Snooker - Feb 02, 2012
- Renthlei wins maiden snooker title for Mizoram - Jul 27, 2011
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- Advani survives scare in National Snooker Championship - Jan 30, 2012
- Yasin, Pankaj romp to last 16 of Senior National Snooker - Aug 07, 2011
- Mehta eases into semis of National Snooker Championship - Feb 03, 2012
- National Snooker: Mehta, Chawla in title round - Feb 03, 2012
- Ashok Shandilya loses in qualifying round of national snooker - Aug 04, 2011
- Alok through to pre-quarters of All India Snooker - Jan 20, 2010
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